Rebassing

Last night was the first choir practice at church here since the Christmas season. I was happy to join. There is an overabundance of tenors, so I am singing bass. I’ve been singing tenor for a long time. It’s interesting to be singing the bass part again. Basses get to sing some pretty fun parts sometimes. I’m a little shaky once the notes go off the bottom of the bass clef, but there aren’t generally too many notes like that in the average bass part. I haven’t sung bass since college. Wait, did I sing bass in college? I think I did…

Mostly I’m just glad to be singing again. I really do enjoy it. And the choir members and the director laughed a lot during practice. That is an excellent sign.

4 Responses to Rebassing

Yay for choir!! It’s an instant community! Lloyd is going to freak when he hears the words ‘overabundance of tenors’, since that is so incredibly rare.

Lloyd’s been singing bass a lot at church lately, drat his cold. A couple of weeks ago Lloyd was pointing to a weird note, so I tried singing the bass part an octave higher and my brain almost exploded.

Hal Hopson – now there’s a composer’s name I haven’t seen in a while. (Our accompanist/choir “director”-really-piano-teacher-and-funeral-parlor-organist does more small country church pieces by folks I’ve not heard of, ‘cept I know them now because the choir has a repertoire of nearly a dozen tunes…’nuff said there) And your own folder already, too! I never cease to be impressed by how welcoming this entire community – school, church, et alia – seems to be, enveloping the New Guy ASAP with everything he needs to feel part of the group from the first. My soul is smiling broadly at that thought…

…while simultaneously reflecting on my high school days when, due to a distinct and measurable absence of tenors, I and another female one year ahead of me regularly sang that voice in BLS’ choir…’till we graduated. Even though in time I could return to alto, when I hear pieces performed that were once sung by I group I was in, I wind up switching between voices unable to recall which voice I know better (or, at my age, can even sing well). “Eh, just pick a note in an agreeable chord, Carol…”